


Johnny

by suecsit



Category: Cobra Kai
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 22:11:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suecsit/pseuds/suecsit
Summary: After a hard week, Johnny finds just was he's looking for in a bar.Sequel to Robby Parts 1-3 and Balance.





	Johnny

**Author's Note:**

> One thing I believe with all of my heart is that, if done right, conversation can be such wonderful foreplay. You'll notice that most other conversations, like the one Daniel has with Amanda, happen offstage because I want the dialogue to be Johnny and Daniel's arena more than anyone else. I make one exception for Robby since he IS someone important to both of them.
> 
> Thank you for all of your comments and support. This is the second to last chapter of the "Bert" series. Please let me know what you think. We're still a bit small as a fandom, so every reaction means a great deal. :)

Johnny was going to get very drunk. 

They were back at Cobra Kai. Amanda had visited the dojo to “check it out.” She had stared at him the entire time and not in a way that was generous or patient, like the kind of stare she attempted over breakfast many months ago. 

From the moment she walked in Daniel was working overtime to impress her; he showed her Sam’s recent kata and her new ability to sweep. She was getting strong enough to break boards. The visits to Miyagi-do had done what Daniel and Johnny had hoped: they’d created more well-rounded fighters. Although Hawk had not come back, most of the other students remained interested in what both Daniel and Johnny had to offer. Even Robby.

But in the middle of a routine Amanda had interrupted Sam and asked Johnny to demonstrate the sweep. Daniel remained quiet, on the sidelines. As soon as Johnny partnered with Sam, showing her the difference between legal and illegal contact, he knew what she was doing. She was playing games. Because of this, he stumbled to give an adequate explanation of his lesson. 

The students stared. This was the first time their sensei had shown a distinct lack of composure during the middle of a practice. He had even mixed their names up at one point and then profusely apologized for it. Both had scared the teens: the mixing up and the apologizing. Johnny didn’t usually apologize to anyone. 

Daniel, on the other hand, usually one to turn red or lose his temper, was completely composed. It pissed Johnny off. When he left with Amanda, he paused for a moment to catch Johnny’s eye, but Johnny refused to look at him. He went back to his office to do what he usually did best: drown his sorrows.

Robby had still been gathering his things when Johnny retreated. From the noise he heard, Johnny suspected he might still be there. For the first time he just didn’t care what his son thought of him. The visit from Amanda had left him completely numb and exhausted. 

There was a hesitant knock.

Johnny took a large swig of the Coors and told whoever it was to enter.

It was Robby. He hung by the door for a moment, looked indecisive, and then sat down in the chair across from his father.

“Mrs. L can be kind of uptight,” he admitted.

“What?” Johnny was still numb and had no idea what Robby was talking about.

“Mrs. Larusso.”  
“Oh. Right.” Robby worked with her. He would know.

They both sat in silence. Johnny would normally try to think of something to say that would help bridge the gap between them. Instead, he was mute.

“So I, uh, I’m thinking about going back to school. Maybe after Christmas.”

Suddenly Johnny was back on earth. “You are?”

“Yeah.”

Johnny wondered who talked him into it. He didn’t have to wonder long.

“Mr. Larusso said that more jobs are open to high school graduates so I should at least give it a shot.”

“He’s right.”

Robby smiled and laughed to himself. “Weird hearing you say stuff like that.”

“Yeah, well…”

His son looked at him for a moment, and suddenly Johnny realized Robby knew why things had changed. 

“It’s good, though,” Robby added.

“You think?” Johnny was afraid to hold eye contact for long. He settled for peeling the label off of his beer. 

“Sure. Just….be careful.” Robby looked like he wanted to say something else but stopped. “Can I have one of those?” he nodded at the beer bottle.

“Nope.” 

“Didn’t think so.” Robby stood up and gathered his skateboard and duffel. “Oh, and sorry about…Hawk.” Although he spit the word out like it tasted bad, Johnny was impressed.

“Not your fault. His grades tanked. His mom won’t let him do any extracurriculars.”

“Well, anyway, sorry. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. 

Johnny stood up. Maybe it was because he looked so dejected after practice, or because Robby had once run afoul of Mrs. Larusso’s moods in his own past, but Robby didn’t shy away when he moved closer and attempted a hug.  
They both stepped back quickly, as if shocked it happened. “I’ll see you,” Johnny said. 

Robby started to leave. 

“Oh, and Robby? Sorry we had to come back. I know you liked it at the other place.”

“Nah. Both are fine. Bye, Dad.”

*****

The week passed. Johnny didn’t get any calls or texts. He didn’t hear from Daniel at all. He came to accept it, mainly because the whole thing had brought him back to Robby. If anything, it was worth it for that. 

He saw Daniel in practice the following week, and both men were polite but withdrawn. They had found a rhythm teaching together that they could count on even when things were difficult. It was a lot like muscle memory, except for the brain. Daniel could finish Johnny’s sentences and vice versa. The students continued to improve.

Still, the separation took its toll. Johnny spent many evenings alone in bars. 

One night, he found that he was driving back to Reseda, back to the bar around the corner from where Daniel used to live. They’d spent a day there together a long time ago, back before Johnny ever knew how he really felt about his rival. That day Johnny told Daniel things he never told anyone, and it was when Daniel leaned close to show him Ali’s picture on his phone that he knew, for the first time, that he was definitely in trouble. 

At that moment, both men had frozen, their fingers overlapping as they bent to study the small screen. Johnny felt it like an electric current, and he didn’t think he was alone. Daniel had straightened up a bit on his stool and motioned for another round. Then the moment passed.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Johnny walked to the bar without looking around at the parking lot or his surroundings. If he had, he would have seen an SUV that he recognized. He’d stopped noticing those kinds of things. 

Daniel was sitting at the same bar stool he had been many months ago. In front of him where there should have been a cold martini was a beer. 

Johnny thought about turning around and leaving, but he didn’t. He was tired of that crap. Either Daniel wanted to be around him or he didn’t. 

“Hey, princess,” Johnny said, sitting down next to him.

Daniel’s face lit up. Johnny would never get tired of seeing it.

“Hey….” Daniel hadn't yet found a nickname for Johnny in these situations. Maybe he would eventually. 

“Come here often?” He nudged Daniel with his elbow as he settled in.

“Not often enough.”

“No more club soda days for you then, huh?”

“Not in a while,” Daniel admitted. “Not since my wife and I separated.”

Johnny motioned for the bartender to give him a drink. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Do you see me laughing?”

“Gee, Larusso, I’m….well, I’m not sorry, but I’m sorry. Make sense?” Johnny took a long drink. 

Daniel nodded. 

“It’s messed up that she’s ok with everything else you’ve been through and now this is where it ends.”

“You were at the top of the list.” 

“So you’ve said. It still doesn’t make any sense.”

“Nah, it does, but….” Daniel looked around. He clearly couldn’t finish his sentence in a public place.

“Let’s take this somewhere else,” Johnny said, leaving a twenty on the bar counter. “For once, I’m the sober one. I’ll drive.”

**** 

Johnny didn’t know how smart it was to drive Daniel to the beach. But through the annoying L.A. traffic and his own reckless habit of cutting people off at exits, Daniel didn’t say a word. He just looked out the window.

This hurt Johnny more than he cared to admit. His relationship with Daniel had been all about banter. Daniel loved to talk. He would talk so much that it would drive Johnny crazy. The sarcasm, the way he’d sometimes bite Johnny’s head off…the way his old Jersey accent would crop back up at odd times during their arguments. When he thought of Daniel, he didn’t just think of sex. He thought of conversation. That had never happened to him before.

When he exited to Topanga Beach, he thought he saw Daniel look at him once very quickly and then turn away again.

“Come on,” Johnny said, taking the keys out of the ignition when they found parking. It was an overcast Thursday in late October. Grey clouds were gathering in the distance over the water. No one was around. 

Johnny thought of that old Don Henley song when he remembered how many people had been there when he and Daniel first visited in July.

They sat down silently on the dunes like they had before. Johnny waited for Daniel to finish the explanation he’d started inside the bar.

“Most of the people we hung out with,” Daniel said, and Johnny had to lean close to hear him, “they didn’t care who they hooked up with. But she knew. Every time I was with someone, they were blonde.”

“You mean after all the tournament stuff?”

“No. Before.”

Johnny froze for a moment. “What do you mean—before?”

Daniel just looked at him. It was driving Johnny nuts.

“Larusso, tell me what’s going on. Talk to me.”

Daniel took a deep breath. “I think I’ve been kind of obsessed with you. For a. . . while. Ever since you handed me that trophy. No other guy had done something like that for me. I mean not one my age. You probably figured out I don’t have many friends. I mean guy friends.”

“Yeah….but…handing you a trophy? That’s all it took?”

“I saw the way you looked at me. It was like for a minute I was the entire world to you. You even seemed sad that other people were picking me up. Like you wanted to do it instead.”

“Ok…”

“I’ve had this dream, y’know. Where we fight in the arena and everybody disappears. And then you kiss me and we end up on the mat. I’ve been having that dream for years.” Daniel was looking out at the water, not to avoid Johnny’s eyes but more because he seemed transported to someplace else. Some place simpler. 

Johnny reached out and took Daniel’s hand. Daniel allowed it, but the hand stayed limp. 

“She knew about all that. Sometimes she was like my best friend, and I told her things I shouldn’t have. I hurt her every time your name came up. Sometimes I think that she wanted to sleep with other people just to get back at me for you.”

The wind picked up, and Daniel shielded his eyes from the sand. Once it settled, he continued. He thought he could hear thunder.

“Then you opened up the dojo. And it got much worse. At least before you were just in my head. Now it was real. She tried to put up with it…at first. When she found out who Robby was, that was the final straw.”

“He stayed to talk to me, you know. After practice.” 

Daniel finally looked at him. “Really?” 

“Yeah, he knows about us. I guess they all do.”

“Poor kids. They’ll be in therapy in a few years.”

Johnny laughed. “Probably.” He squeezed Daniel’s hand. He felt a bit of strength in the hold now. It comforted him. “I guess we should join them,” he joked.

“Hey, speak for yourself. I’m perfectly sane.”

“Course you are. Everyone obsesses about making out with the guy who beat them up when they were a kid. Totally normal.”

“Whoa. It wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have those dreams while you were cracking my ribs, Johnny. It was after I won.”

“Sure it was.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know you’re serious.”

Daniel was beginning to come to life again. Johnny felt a rush of pleasure to see the challenge in his eyes. “So that’s how much of a stud you thought you were, huh, Goldilocks? That I’d just follow you around and let myself get BEATEN just to be in your presence?”

“You did say you liked it when I held you down. When I tied you up?”

Daniel shook his head. “That doesn’t mean I want you to break my limbs. Besides, it’s not like I can’t defend myself. We’re the same size now.”

“Almost the same size. You’re still smaller.”

“Whatever makes you feel better, Johnny.” 

“Maybe you don’t want me to break your ribs, but you sure do like me being in control.”

Daniel’s mouth opened as he started to argue, but Johnny pushed him down into the sand and slowly moved on top of him. He gave Daniel plenty of opportunity to slither out from under him. When Daniel didn’t move, he raised an eyebrow as if to say “I told you so.” The wind whistled so he cupped Daniel’s face so the sand wouldn’t blow in his eyes. Daniel’s hands went up as if to push those hands away, but instead they just held Johnny’s wrists as if to keep them there.

“It’s going to storm,” Daniel protested.

“Is it?” Johnny ran his hand down Daniel’s chest, searching through fabric for the bite mark from weeks ago. “I know it’s here still,” he mumbled. He began unbuttoning his shirt so he could have direct contact with it. 

“Johnny,” he said softly, moving up to cup his rival’s face the way he had done to him just minutes before. “Really, it IS about to pour. As romantic as your favorite beach spot is, I think we need to head inside.”

“I thought you were all about nature.”

“Not getting electrocuted, no.”

“Fine,” Johnny said. He pulled Daniel up with him. “Where to?”


End file.
